Ore. poised to end ban on teachers’ religious garb

(RNS) Oregon is poised to become the 48th state to permit teachers to wear headscarves and other religious dress in school, ending an 87-year ban that was originally intended to keep Catholic nuns out of public schools. The 51-8 vote by the state’s House of Representatives is the first decision toward repealing Oregon’s ban on […]

(RNS) Oregon is poised to become the 48th state to permit teachers to wear headscarves and other religious dress in school, ending an 87-year ban that was originally intended to keep Catholic nuns out of public schools.

The 51-8 vote by the state’s House of Representatives is the first decision toward repealing Oregon’s ban on religious garb. If passed, Nebraska and Pennsylvania would be the only remaining states to prohibit religious clothing.

If approved, the Oregon law would take effect in 2011. Before that, the state’s education and labor agencies would hammer out rules designed to protect students from religious coercion while allowing observant Muslim women, Sikhs and Orthodox Jewish men to teach in Oregon classrooms.


The repeal now goes to the state Senate, where Majority Leader Richard Devlin says he personally favors the change but can’t predict the vote.

Opponents of the change, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, say they want lawmakers to slow down and think harder about the ramifications. They say the rights of students — particularly impressionable elementary pupils — to be free from religious indoctrination at school should be front and center.

“The relationship between a teacher and a student is special,” said Rep. Ron Maurer, a Republican. “We put those teachers on a pedestal.”

Proponents hailed the Feb. 10 vote as a victory for Muslim women and others who have been kept from teaching in Oregon by a faith that compels them to cover their heads.

After the vote, Muslim and Sikh leaders predicted more young people from their faith communities would enter teaching, knowing they do not have to choose between honoring their beliefs and teaching in public schools.

“This is the way it’s supposed to be,” said Bahadur Singh, a member of the Sikh Temple of Salem, Ore.


Oregon’s ban, enacted in 1923, originally was designed to keep Catholic nuns from teaching in public schools during a time of anti-Catholic bigotry.

“This unjust practice violates our core sense of civil rights and civil liberties,” said Rep. Michael Dembrow, a Portland Democrat, who grew up as an Orthodox Jew whose beliefs compelled him to wear a yarmulke. “I see nothing in the mere wearing of clothing” by a teacher that proselytizes students, he said.

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